Brandon Cronenberg Debuts Lynchian 'Antiviral'

One notable newcomer on the circuit at the 65th Annual Cannes Film Festival is Brandon Cronenberg (yes, the infamous David Cronenberg’s son) who is making his directorial debut with his first feature film, Antiviral. The film, which will be competing as part of the “Un Certain Regard” series, has gained comparison to the likes of David Lynch and Stanley Kubrick due to its rather disturbing idiosyncrasies. It even has some dubbing it the birth of a whole new sub-genre: hypo-horror.

This dark film follows celebrity obsession to an extreme, set in a dystopian semi-future where celebrity viruses are a black market commodity. Caleb Landry Jones (pictured) plays the haunting lead role of Syd March. He works as a technician for a clinic which extracts and sells celebrity viruses to adoring fans who wish to share “biological communion” with them. When pop star Hannah Geist (Sarah Gadon) contracts a new illness, Syd is sent to her hotel suite to retrieve the samples. Going against protocol, he succumbs to his own obsessive enthrallment with her and injects himself with her samples. Unfortunately, he soon learns the illness is more serious than he initially predicted.

“I keep saying it’s a romantic comedy, and it is, but everyone thinks I’m joking!” Cronenberg told Twitchfilm.com.

—SIOBHAN MCBRIDE

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